Stunts, possibly a game every oldgamer knows. Its about racing, stunting and designing your own stunt tracks. That is probably the most interesting bit in the game, creating your own tracks and let others race it and laugh about their mistakes. I’ve played this game a million times, together with friends or your brother, or anyone. I started out with this game on our XT, it already run on that pretty well, but it went ofcourse a lot better when we had our 286. Nowadays it runs like a charm on DosBOX and you dont need a very powerful computer either. There are lots of supported graphic modes, Hercules, CGA, EGA, MCGA 256-color and Tandy. Same goes for the sound, PC Speaker, Adlib and Roland MT-32. Although the sound isnt too interesting, you have to do it from the gameplay.

The graphics are in 3D polygon style, no sprites are being used, apart from the dashboard view, so everything is “true” 3D. The viewing range limit is maybe a bit too near, so you have to react pretty fast when a sharp corner is coming up, or the road is blocked with .. uhm .. blocks. They seam to just pop into view, it can frustrate once in a while.

There are two different race types, race against an opponent or race against the clock. Racing against an opponent is always a computer player, so its never with two people. Thats something I think lacks in the game, playing against a human opponent, it would be awesome if you could race with two players, or with more players networked. Its really a bit you miss when you play it a while. The computer players are ranging in AI from newbie till professional, allthough you can win on some tracks pretty easily from the pro AI player. The AI makes a lot of driving errors and you can easily take advantage over that. Yes, a human is more clever than the AI most of the time. So you usually and up being the first one to finish, when the AI decided to run into a blockade and crash. It makes you giggle though and you think .. “What a stupid error to make”. Racing against time is the other option and that is more fun when you’re playing in turns with a friend, just to see who is better on one of the default tracks or on the self made ones.

When you go for a race, you can choose from a variety of different cars, theres a Ferrari, a few Lamborghinis, a few Porsches, a Jaguar, an Audi, a Lancia and a few others, like an F1 racing car. If you’re racing against the newbie AI, give him the F1, for hilarious fun And you can choose your favorite color. All the cars have a different dashboard view and different drive styles.

Yeah, you heard it right, self made tracks. The game comes with a fairly simple editor, to make your own tracks. You can choose from a variety of pre-made objects, roads, bendy roads, muddy roads, icey roads, bridges, jumps, loopings, scenery, etc, and place them in one of the few different landscapes. You can make super short tracks or highly complex circuits and you can then use them in both the racing against opponents and racing against time game modes. The AI always knows the shortest route though, so when you’re making multiple branched tracks, then the AI is always the most clever one in finding the right route to the finish. But when racing against time with your friends, you’re always in for a good laugh when your friend takes the long route, or the difficult one when there is an easy road till the finish. Fun guaranteed.

Overall a pretty fun game, it will last forever when you’re playing in turns with friends and make the oddest and wierdest routes and going for the best time. Already told you the goods and the bads of the AI, so you can judge that for yourself, but I hardly used that racing option. The music is only available in the menus, so you only hear “exciting” racing sounds while driving and I think the MT-32 racing sounds arent too bad either. Its just that every car sounds alike, theres no difference in sound between an Audi Quattro or the F1 car. But thats not something thats very important in this game. The track editor is probably the best thing in the game and if it wasnt there, then it probably would be the most boring game ever. But for this one, two thumbs up!

The third incarnation in the Lotus series, but this one was the first appearing on the PC platform. The first two episodes where available on Commodore Amiga and a various of other platforms. This game is really one of the ultimate racing games on the PC. I remembered playing it on my friends Amiga 500, where its name was Lotus III – The Ultimate Challenge. The fabulous music and the engine noises, it was all great. So I was kind of excited when it first came out on the PC, even so excited because I bought it. It came on one 1.44MB floppy and was playable from the 286 and on. And its still playable on nowadays computers, so the timing was good in this game. The game was copy protected with a spinning wheel. Matching helmets.

In this game you can choose from three different cars, all Lotuses for some reason The Lotus Esprit S4, the Lotus Elan and the M200 concept car. All I wanted to drive was the Lotus Esprit, because it was one of my favorite cars at that particular moment in time. If I ever can get my paws on a real Lotus Esprit, I would certainly go for it! As long as I can fit behind the wheel, cos thats a little problem when you’re 6’9. Anyhow, back to the game. Theres not much of a story to tell, its just an arcade racer, but its great great fun, especially when you’re with two people. Yes, you can drive with two people on one computer. It gets a little crowdy behind the keyboard, but its fun nonetheless.

You can drive a couple of presetted circuits, they all take place in various enviroments, one on the highway, the forest, the desert, at night, on a road with a lot of roadworks, the mountains a la testdrive, windy roads, snowy roads, you can even race in the future. Every enviroment has its own set of unique properties, for example, racing in the future has highspeed roads, if you drive on them, you’ll get automatically boosted to the topspeed, however its hard to slowdown on that part of the road, so you have to dodge cars once in a while. On the normal roads you can ride into beams of light flickering across the road, those will get you to a complete halt if you drive into them. Every enviroment has its unique set of properties which will get you fascinated. Its a nice addition to sucha fine arcade racer.

Besides racing presetted circuits, you can start making your own as well! This game features a very easy and simple editor, its so easy anyone can do it. Its called RECS and that stands for Racing Enviroment Constuction System. They claim it can produce up to 5 trillion different racing experiences, I didnt try them all, but its nice to fiddle around with it. If you set your racing mode to RECS, you’ll get a list of tracks, to fill in a code to create a game, nine to be exact. You can enter a 9 character code and a 2 digit difficultiness, or go to the editor and fiddle around with the graphical bars. So I always just thought up random words to fill in and play those. Hilarious at times, definately when playing with two people.

The music on the Amiga was fabulous as I said before, the PC version is a little bit less interesting, but a wide broad of soundboards are supported. You can choose (if you have the hardware ofcourse) between PC Speaker (standard), Adlib, Soundblaster and Roland MT-32. The last two ones are the most interesting, although you might choose the Soundblaster instead. The SB included several digitalized sound effects, like howling winds on the windy roads. Its a nice addition, however it would’ve been more fun if they just did it all digitized just like on the Amiga. The musics are interesting, but you might just listen to the engine sounds when playing the game, because you really miss those when playing the game just listening to the music. The music gets set on repeat too, so it will drive you mad after some time of playing long tracks / circuits. The Roland MT-32 music is very nicely done, but it just uses the standard instruments, they didnt make their own. It would sound much better if they did that instead. The sound effects on the MT-32 arent very interesting, better use the Soundblaster for that. The PC Speaker is highly irritating with the bleepy music, but still, nicely done for the one voice PC Speaker ..

The graphics are pretty. Pretty as in VGA 256 color 320×200. I think it looks better on PC than on Amiga. Its also the only graphical mode supported by the game. CGA, EGA, Hercules owners were out of luck. The game itself was in 3D, created with sprites, there were no 3D accelerators in 1993, so even Michelle can play it.

Multiplayer is limited to two players on the same computer. The screen will get horizontal divided and you have to fiddle around with who is who. Its not very clear to see when you’re both driving the same car. The keyboard is supported for two players, but if you have a joystick, it works with that as well. I prefer the keyboard. RECS works with two players too, so its fun just thinking up random words and driving those random tracks

Are there any weaknesses in the game ? Apart from the things I already mentioned with the music and seeing who is who in two player mode, not much. Not much at all. I cant really think up any. Its a great game and still playable on modern computers. No, this game will keep you entertained for quite a while. Its highly playable on DosBox, lots of fun with two people on one computer and playing random thought-up tracks and circuits!

The guys who made the PC game conversion are: Cygnus Software Ltd.

But it’s so much more. It’s not just Bob the hamster! You can play two games within this one game, you can also be Vlad the Impaler.

As Bob it is your task to navigate around the screen and collect the carrots, avoiding the monsters. You can shoot the monsters with your drop of water. But be warned, your drop of water needs to replenish before you can shoot again.

Vlad on the other hand has to run around collecting coins to fund his army. You get to shoot knives!

The game is visually appealing for what it is. It uses real speaking to congratulate you when you finish a level. There are options where you can turn this off if it freaks you out! I enjoyed this game, it wasted a good couple of ours. Then a few more when I discovered a whole new game as Vlad.

Good fun times!

A very addictive action/puzzle hybrid with a low learning curve and tons of playability. The plot is not important (kill the big baddie, rescue the girl), just fight your way through a series of mazes, dropping timed bombs to clear out all the monsters. As you progress through the game you will get powerups which will at the very least make your bombs more powerful.

The single player game is good, the multiplayer game is great. Compete against friends trying to blow eachother up (tricking them into walking into an explosion is always the most fun ).

All in all a very simple, but very addictive way to waste a few hours

The first game I ever played on C64, although this is for PC. It was cool, I even still have the cassette at home that still works in my old Amstrad. Hehe, you would think I was a fanatic. I get déj� vu when I play catacomb because of this game! It was an excellent foundation layer for the dungeon crawler games though.

This game has multi and single player. You pick your own character, and the others pick theirs. When you start this game you chose from the following four characters:

Thor the Warrior:
He’s the big man. Takes a bit to knock him out, but he doesn’t have any special magic powers. He also moves a bit slow.

Merlin the Wizard:
Touché! Well, you couldn’t very well have a Wizard and not call him Merlin I guess! Merlin is a cool character, he has strong magic abilities, and can kick some arse. He cant really do much when he’s being hit on the head, as he’s a very fragile character and its better to kill everyone around you before they get too close and smack him.

Thyra the Valkyrie:
This was the character that I always used. I guess that’s because I am a girl =). She’s tough, she’s powerful, has magic. Plus she looks dang good in a skimpy costume! What more could you want? She moves relatively fast and has the best of all the characters rolled into one I think.

Questor the Elf:
He can use magic, and can hit people pretty hard. But he’s pretty fragile again, and his best characteristic is that he is the fastest. Which is good when you need to get away as he’s got stuff-all armor. But when surrounded with nowhere to go, who you gonna call?
This game is great, you go through many levels, gathering treasure and potions and killing the dungeon monsters. It’s so much fun. There are many dungeons to go through, and if you’ve played Catacomb, then you’ll pick this game up really easy, as this game inspired all like games.

I guess the one bummer is when you are playing multi player and you get caught in different screens and get stuck, as the screen just isn’t wide enough for you both to go back and get together again! That used to cause a lot of resets when Sarah and I used to play it!

You MUST download this game and play it. It’s excellent and totally rocks hard! I love it!!!

Ooh, scary I remember playing this game way back on the C64. It was a lot of fun then, and still is a lot of fun now on the PC

Another one of my much loved side-scrolling platform games. You can climb up and down things, and go onto different levels etc. But you still go from left to right jumping around and killing all the baddies, trying to make it to the end of the level. Sweeet!

Your enemies are scary monsters that come out of graves and other ominous places, such as zombies, ghosts, bats and icky things. You are the trusty knight who slays these hideous beasts and goes around doing the general kickass job he’s supposed to do! You can collect various things to make you stronger and aid in your battle to get to the end of the game.

I was just reading that to complete the game you have to go back to the beginning and go right through again on a harder level. You have to complete it twice in total to actually complete it. Man, talk about rough! I never even made it through once! This game is HARD! So if you are sick of all the way-too-easy games, and you think you are the bee’s knees then maybe you should try this game out

Pretty good-looking game considering it is 14 years old! Great colours, and the monsters all look scary and you look like the hero you’re supposed to be Typical PC speaker sounds.

Turned out to be a very cool PC game and everyone should give it a go, especially if you never got to have a turn on the C64, because it’s a great game and a very wicked challenge.

This makes me want to cry.

Archer MaClean’s Interntional Karate (and it’s update, IK+) was without out a doubt the best and most fun game available on 8-bit systems. Argue with me on this and I will set fire to your house!

But THIS, this is a travesty. The graphics have gone straight to CGA hell, replaced by awful blue and magenta tones, the sound is quite frankly awful – it does retain the same fluid control system as it has on other platforms.. but the presentation spoils the whole game.

I suggest that you download this game, play it for five minutes and then go get an Atari ST or Amiga emulator and a copy of IK+ (or even a C64 or speccy emulator).

The difference between the two is extreme.

Such a let down =(

The predecessor to other “shooter-on-rails” games such as Time Crisis, Virtua Cop and House of the Dead. If I recall correctly I can remember three games of this type being released on the ZX spectrum when I owned it – Opertaion Wolf Operation Thunderbolt and The Untouchables. Operation Thunderbolt was without a doubt the best, but this game is the classic.

The game is a first person shooter that scrolls slowly from left to right. Use the mouse (or if your a sadist, the keyboard) to move the target indicator around the screen, shooting enemy soldiers, tanks and helicopters (and the occasional turkey – play the game, you’ll see ). The game is best played with a lightgun.. but since that option isn’t available for the PC (hehe losers) you are stuck with the mouse.

Thr game is great fun, but after the third level or so it gets slightly repetitive. However, if you want a game that is easy to get into and involves lots of frantic shooting, this very well may be the one for you.

Wow this was an original game. It really was, honest, but it was darn crap after a while. It’s been made on basically all the systems I can think of though, so it can’t be all that bad!

You’re the paperboy for that good ol’ newspaper The Daily Sun. It’s your job to make sure that all subscribers to the paper get their copy! Also you can go and abuse the people that don’t subscribe (an added bonus for those really dedicated workers!).

Playing this game gives a whole new angle to the role of the paperboy, although I’m not sure I’ve seen the lad that delivers our paper fall off his bike as often as I did . There are kerbs you hit, fences, dogs, people, and steps (oddly some of them are built across the footpath). There are even break-dancers!! Go figure o_O.

When I started out playing this I was awful, I gradually got better. I think that was the main thing that kept me playing it, not the actual game, but beating my own best. I know that doesn’t say much about the game play, but it does get repetitive. You either love this game, or you just play it because you are bored.

All in all though, it’s a great challenge. Beat your own best, or kick your friends arses Just get through it so you can say you did even! I admit I sometimes still give it a whirl.

Now this’ll take you back. Well, I was 13 at the time, so it’s not _that_ long ago (honestly). Nags is a brilliant game, full of fun, originality and superb game play. This is quite appropriate, as the Melbourne Cup was on yesterday!

The concept is simple. You have 6 horses in a race; you place a bet, watch the race, collect the winnings and then rinse and repeat. So you’re thinking it gets a tad monotonous? You’re wrong, it goes deeper. Like at your local T.A.B you can bet on a win, place or show. Your winnings depend on both the odds and what position you placed a bet for. Win enough and you get to be in the big money earning score board. The nags themselves have the most interesting names – just like real horse racing – and they build up statistics so you can view information about the individual horses.

Multiplayer! Because there are six horses, you and up to five other people can play together. Each player picks a horse, places a bet and then you all watch the race then beat on the winner (or loser, depending on what kind of friend you are). Gaming with friends, what could possibly be any better?

The graphics are a bit of a let down. It’s got good VGA colour, but for a 1993 game it’s very simplistic. Graphics obviously had a lower priority than game play and originality. Which is a good thing, as it’s a trend you see in classic games: game play > graphics!

Oh, don’t forget the PC speaker sounds; we can’t forget the PC speaker sounds. I cranked this up and it nearly blasted my room away!

P.S. If you like this game, get a copy of Harvest Moon and go horse racing.

You remember what it was like being a teenager right? hell I guess some of you ARE teenagers. Then you know what it feels like, your skin screws up, you get hair in really weird places, your voice wont make it’s mind up about what it wants to do and you just wish everyone would sod of and leave you alone or you just know you are gonna snap and do some SERIOUS damage to something.

Well anyway, when I was a teenager I had dreams, and my dreams were just like this game. I wanted to be 200ft tall and smash the hell out of everything, stamp on cars, pick up passers by and bite them in half…

Then this man came and gave me these pills and the bad thoughts went away, I only think about nice things like rainbows and fairies now.

Aaaaanyway, you’re here because you want to know about the game, not the dark thoughts that burrow into my mind like little worms screaming at me over and over and over again untill I JUST CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

…

um.. yeah, Rampage.
In Rampage you take on the roles of one of three huge monsters – an ape, a lizardman and a wolfman. The object of the game is to knock down all of the buildings on each level, but theres a catch. Not only are the other 2 monsters competing with you but the military has also been called in. So you will have tanks shooting at you from below and helicopters buzzing around your head. Luckily if take too much damage you can just reach inside someone’s apartment window and um.. get yourself a snack

Lose too much energy and you will revert to human (nekkid) form and have to sidestep off screen, covering your shame (be careful though, because you just know one of those other big sods will just pick you up and pop you into their mouth.

Rampage is a fun and addictive game, maybe lacking in depth but with a lot of replayability.

Download it, it’s good

OK, back to my childhood for this one peeps. The first computer that I ever owned was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3…

Actualy scratch that, the Spectrum (or ‘Speccy’) was more akin to a shoebox than a computer. A shoebox that crassed repeatedly. A shoebox that crashed repeatedly and NOISELY! (WEEEEEEEOWWWW BWEEEEEEEEP!!! etc)

Right, back to my story. I got my lil speccy for Christmas all those years ago along with a boxed set of fighting games (yeah!). There was International Karate, Barbarian (both will be on this site soon) and Renegade among others. Many hours of my childhood were wasted kicking bikers in the head and throwing them off subway platforms into the darkness below.. so when I found out that there was PC version of this game I just had to have a copy.

And y’know what? It was better on the speccy.

Renegade is a fighting game in case you haven’t guessed, if you’ve ever played Double Dragon or Bad Dudes you’ll know what is involved. Fight an ever increasing number of baddies across several levels, getting ever closer to the BIG BOSS!

Yeah.. not much more to it than that, no one said a game had to be deep to be fun after all Graphics-wise the game is quite nice, if a little blocky and unclear and I cant really complain about the sound.. but the game just doesn’t feel as cohesive as it did on the speccy. It’s often hard to judge kicks and punches because the overly-colourful sprites mean that everything can be a jumble at times. The moves are also a bit limited.. you cant walk and punch at the same time for example.

On the PC this is an average game, on the speccy it kicked ass. I would suggest you download it and form your own opinion.

You wanna know what makes Star Wars so popular? It’s that every god-danged person on this PLANET wants a light sabre. Don’t deny it because you know it’s true!

This game has no lightsabres (Jedi knight does though, so go buy that), instead it’s scope is limited to the assualt on the Death Star which took place at the end of A New Hope. Firstly you must take on a wave of Tie Fighters (how many ships depends on the difficulty level you have it on) and then fly down the Death Star trench to take out the exhaust port and win the day for the rebellion.

Repeat this over and over and over again.

Visually the game is nothing flash by todays standards (did you expect anything else?) consisting of 16 colour vector graphics. The game is fun to play for a while but gets boring quite fast. the main reason that I added it here is that I have fond memories of playing this game in the arcades, sitting in the cockpit blasting tie fighters and hearing the immortal “use the force luke!” (you wont hear this in the PC version so don’t get your hopes up).

Fun as hell the first few times you play it – providing you get it running at the correct speed. After that, somewhat dull.

But hell, i’m allowed to be nostalgic

This is a very, very cool game! I remember playing this when I was young, and thinking it was cool that I was allowed to play a game that had alcohol in it This is a great example of a game where you play and play and play just to see who can get the highest score (like jezzball hehe).

It’s a very simple game really. You are a bartender, and your job is to fill up the beer glass, then chuck it down the bar to the guy, who throws it back and you fill it and then throw it back, I think you get the idea. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is not a challenge, the game gets very hard and fast and you have to work hard for your precious points!

Lovely CGA graphics in pink, white and cyan! The PC speaker will be pumping out the fine beepy tunes in time to this game, although I must admit, the sound in this game is not as annoying as some.

Overall it’s a fun little game, not very big, and well worth the download. Great classic gameplay indeed!

This download contains both versions 1 and 2 of Tapper. You will require a slowdown utility, which you can get from our utilities page.

Well, the aim of the game couldn’t be simpler, just shoot every ship in sight!

Personally, I found the first couple of levels the hardest as I had to actually sit there and shoot all the planes, even though they insisted on flying as slow as they could, and you don’t got all that fast either. So, as you can tell, it starts off relatively easy.

The enemies that you have to shoot do change, they get a lot smarter and also vary their movement patterns as you move up through the levels. Enemies also have the ability to shoot back at you, and this gets more frequent as you increase levels. I never have gotten to the last level so I cannot say how many levels there actually are, but as you progress up through the levels it gets very hard indeed.

Lovely colours to keep you happy for hours. True, there are only four colours, but ask yourself, do you really need more? I thought that considering this game was made in 1986, the graphics are rather good.

I recommend this game as one to keep you busy for quite a while, or as a game to just load up when you have a bit of time to spare. It’s a gem of a game, download it and see for yourself.

Kurt Kalata’s excellent review puts it better than I ever could :

“It’s an arguable point that Double Dragon started the whole beat-em-up genre. You know, the type where you control some character who has to wander through a town and beat the crap out of every bad guy nearby. It’s even more startling when you learn that the game that started it all really isn’t all that impressive.
As the opening screen states, Marian is standing in the middle of the street when a big bad dude comes up, slugs her in the stomach, slings her over his shoulder and takes her off. This evil gang (supposedly being led by the hero’s brother Jimmy), for whatever reason, decided to capture her. Well, as Billy Lee, you’re off to rescue your girlfriend.

The game’s a simple walk forward and smash the crud out of any bad guys. However, this is Tradewest’s version of the arcade hit. The most glaring omission is the lack of a two player mode. Yep, this is a one player only affair, so don’t expect to plow through the bad guys with a friend. To compensate, a tournament mode is included that allows you to pick one of the game’s characters and pit them together in a small enclosed arena. These scenes can be played in two player, although the game simply ends once one persons dies…there’s no continuity in this mode, just quick bursts of fun. They also play a bit differently, with different sets of moves and the ability to run. It’s nice to play as the enemy characters, and everyone is drawn quite a bit bigger and better looking than in the actual game.

Another interesting twist is that Billy Lee gains more techniques as the game goes on. Each time you hit an enemy, you get some heart points. Once that number reaches 1000, you gain another technique. Although this is an interesting way to introduce new techniques, it’s kinda stupid to start the game without the ability to jump kick. Some of the moves are rather cool though, like punching enemies in the face when they’re lying on the ground. If that wasn’t enough, Tradewest added a couple areas in the game that weren’t in the arcade version (like the cave in level 3…” (Full Review at Classicgaming.com)

My personal opinion – it’s a fun game. I can remember playing it with a friend on the C64 a long time ago and having a ball. One thing that sticks out in my mmind is the fact that you could inflict damage on the person playing with you (indeed, at one point you have to fight them), not a big thing, but it’s oh so fun to stab someone in the back

It is a good game, not brilliant when compared to others beat-em-ups such as Final Fight or the console classic Streets of Rage, but fun nonetheless.

Bubble Bobble has to be one of the most well known arcade games ever made. I remember playing this on Nintendo when I was about 11! I spent hours and hours on it, lets just say my neighbours were glad to see the back of me once that game was done

Bubble Bobble is about Bub and Bob, two adorable little bubble dragons/dinosaurs (depending on who’s opinion you follow, for this review, we’ll say “dragonsaurs” ). Of course they weren’t always bubble dragonsaurs, they were turned that way by naughty wizards. Bub and Bob’s girlfriends have been taken, and in this game they must rescue them from the baddie, who is called Hyper Drunk (yes, strange I know). In order to do this, they have to travel through 100 levels to the underground.

Each level has enemies, and the trick is to trap them in the bubbles. When you get them trapped in the bubble the bubbles float up, then you run and pop the bubbles. When the bubbles are popped out comes fruit and other assorted items which you collect in order to increase your score. This isn’t the entire game though, as when you get up to the higher levels, the enemies get faster and smarter, and also increase in numbers.

There are bonuses to collect, that can increase your bubble shooting speed etc, and also letters. If you spell certain words you can gain an extra life etc.

Bubble Bobble had great graphics. Totally cute! Bub and Bob are cute little dragonsaurs, and even the enemies are cute. It’s a cool looking game, very appealing to the eye. Bubble Bobble certainly has that ol’ arcade charm.

The Bubble Bobble tune can get on your nerves, as it’s the same tune throughout the game. But, if you love the tune like I do, then you shouldn’t have any problems.

Bubble Bobble multiplayer totally kicks arse! I don’t know if the PC version has multiplayer (it should do), but you sure can play it that way on the NES, PSX, or other console you can get it on. If you do find you love this game, and its only one player, then think about getting it for a console, you’ll have hours and hours of fun!!

This is an excellent game! If you can find it in an arcade somewhere, then have a play. That’s the best way to play Bubble Bobble!

I remember this gaem on the ZX Spectrum and my god it’s fun

I don’t know for sure if it’s based on the Arnie Film of the same name (in Europe the game was released as Barbarian while everywhere else it was Death Sword). The game consists of a series of one on one sword fighting bouts against ever more difficult opponents. Use a range of moves (blocks, thrusts and the ever cool overhead chop) to defeat your opponent and and win the game. Not a whole lot more to it than that.

However, what is really great about this game is the two player option where you and a friend compete to against eachother. Some of my fondest memories involve decapitating the kid who lived down the street.. (you know how the rest of this joke goes, so I wont bother).

Great fun.

Bats and balls.. bats and balls… bats and balls…*shiver*….

*ahem*

OK… hands up all those who are old enough to Breakout!

For all you young’uns, Breakout involved trying to deflect a bouncing ball with a padel (while keeping it in play) so that it smashed into a wall of coloured bricks. Not only was it simplicity itself, it was also more addictive then covering yourself in peanut butter and thinking about nuns… yeah!

So anyway, Arkanoid is a demon hell-spawned clone of Breakout; a silly, silly plot (something about spaceships and “space walls”), more features, better graphics, about a quadrillion (it’s a word!) times more addictive than the original! The biggest improvement is the addition of powerups that fall down the screen when you hit certain bricks. The *S* power up slows down the speed of the ball (sorry, energy bolt =P) so that you can take things a little easier, while the *L* powerup gives you a laser gun (COOL!).

So yeah, not a lot of depth to the game, but still more fun than a weasel in a crossbow.

Everyone remembers Alf the alien from Melmac. Gracing our TV’s every evening at around 5.30pm =). You might recognise some famous quotes such as “hey Willy!” and “No problem!”. And the ‘lets eat fluffy the cat’ problem that would arise a fair bit. Hehe, I still even have an Alf soft toy at home! This game is based on the TV show (duh), and I happened to think it was pretty groovy indeed.

Basically Alf came to earth in his spaceship, which is a jet scooter. The problem is, he’s out of gas can’t get home again. There is a pawnshop in this game, which lets him sell stuff and get money to buy some gas for his jet scooter. So his job is to go exploring around and find things to sell to the pawnshop. (I think that they should have named THIS game Thief, don’t you Hehe).

It’s not as simple as finding stuff and then selling it. Some things you need to buy from the pawnshop in order to use in other parts of the game to obtain even bigger stuff to sell. The same goes with some things you find. You don’t sell them, as you need to use them in other parts of the game. Alf is kind of like a puzzle game in that sense.

The graphics and the sound sadly leave a bit to be desired. Considering this is a 1994 game I would have expected much better. The sound might make you want to slit your wrists, and the graphics are a bit hard on the eyes and make gameplay a tad difficult. But you should still have some fun playing this game. We all love Alf, the one alien that we could be around as kids and not get frightened, (except ET of course, although I’d probably need a clean pair of pants if I saw him face to face at the age of 22 even!)

Afterburner is an arcade air combat game (I refuse to use the word “simulator” because if planes were this easy to fly i’d have carpet bombed anyone who looked at me funny by now).

You fly a plane, your enemies fly planes. You will shoot at them, they will shoot at you. There’s really now a whole hell of a lot to it than that.

Just don’t get killed and shoot lots of bad guys, you’ll do fine